Rodent outbreaks affect many farmland areas worldwide and the negative environmental impacts of control campaigns cause intense social tensions. In such conservation conflicts, understanding stakeholders’ viewpoints is critical to promote ecologically sustainable management. We used Q-methodology, a framework standing between qualitative and quantitative social research, to investigate human subjectivity and understand conflicts caused by rodent outbreaks in Spain. We interviewed farmers, conservationists, hunters, and governmental agencies, and identified five main discourses about the origins and consequences of the conflictive situation. Finding sustainable management is impaired by opposing views about causes and consequences of vole outbreaks and their management, which are at the root of the conflict. Social tensions will likely remain until the underlying conflicts between people holding different views are also managed. Decision-making should therefore focus on mitigating underlying conflicts. Using trained independent mediators would help the effective resolution of conservation conflicts caused by rodent outbreaks and their management.
Egg data from ichthyoplankton monitoring sites in the western English Channel (1988–2003) and northern Spain (1990–2000) and
macroscopic maturity data from biological samples of purse seine landings in western and southern Iberia (1980–2004) are used
to describe the spawning seasonality of sardine (Sardina pilchardus) in European waters of the northeast Atlantic using generalised additive models. The fitted models reveal a double peak in
spawning activity during early summer and autumn in the western Channel, a wider spring peak off northern Spain and a broad
winter season in the western and southern Iberian Peninsula. At all sites, a high probability of spawning activity was observed
over at least 3 months of the year, with the duration of the season increasing with both decreasing latitude and increasing
fish size. Off western and southern Iberia there are indications that the spawning season has been of longer duration in recent
years for all size classes (reaching in some cases 8 months of the year for large fish). These patterns are in general agreement
with existing literature and theoretical expectations of sardine spawning being driven locally by the seasonal cycle of water
temperature, assuming preferences for spawning at 14 –15°C and avoidance for temperatures below 12°C and above 16°C. Regional
quotient plots indicated that spawning tolerance to higher temperatures increases progressively with decreasing latitude.
Despite the weak evidence for geographical differences in temperature tolerance that may have some genetic origin, the degree
of spatio-temporal overlap in sardine-spawning activity within Atlantic European waters is unlikely to promote any reproductive
isolation in that area. 相似文献
Randomly amplified polymorphic DNA (RAPD) banding patterns were compared between samples of the netted dogwhelk Nassarius reticulatus from 11 locations along the NW Iberian Peninsula coast. To detect if rias (estuaries formed by drowned river valleys) might
promote genetic differentiation, five sampling sites were located within a ria (ria of Muros) and the remaining six were scattered
along open-coast areas at increasing distances from the ria mouth. Population differentiation statistics (Φ-values) were estimated
using a hierarchical analysis of molecular variance (AMOVA) with samples sorted into two groups: open-coast and ria populations.
Despite a high potential to disperse, AMOVA demonstrated a modest, statistically significant genetic heterogeneity among N. reticulatus populations. Most of the genetic structure resided in differences among open-coast populations; ria populations were genetically
homogeneous. No obvious geographical pattern was detected for the pairwise genetic distances (non-metric multidimensional
scaling; UPGMA tree; Mantel test). Unlike previous studies with other species at a variety of estuarine systems other than
rias, there was no evidence that the ria of Muros may enhance the genetic divergence of N. reticulatus populations. This discrepancy is discussed in relation to the biological features of the species (high dispersal potential
and a preference for mid-low estuarine habitat) and the strong hydrographic connectivity between ria and neighbouring off-shore
waters. 相似文献
Adult magpies Pica pica provide parasitic great spotted cuckoo Clamator glandarius nestlings with a diet very similar to that fed to their own chicks. In both naturally and experimentally parasitized nests, great spotted cuckoo chicks were fed at a higher rate than magpie chicks in the same nest. This preferential allocation of food by magpie parents to great spotted cuckoo chicks is consistent with the supernormal stimulus hypothesis, because this result implies that cuckoo chicks provide stronger stimuli for parental care than host chicks. Great spotted cuckoo chicks receive most of the food brought to the nest by the foster parents, because they exploit a series of stimuli which jointly (or sometimes individually) operate as a supernormal stimulus. This hypothesis predicts that if any stimulus is masked, the efficiency of the cuckoo in eliciting parental care will decrease. Here, we analyze experimentally the effects of two of these stimuli, preferential feeding of large nestlings and of nestlings with conspicuous palatal papillae. Firstly, when we experimentally introduced one medium-sized (7–9 days) cuckoo chick into an unparasitized magpie nest where the largest magpie chick was 12–15 days old, the cuckoo did not receive significantly more food than the average or the largest magpie chick. Secondly, when unparasitized nests were experimentally parasitized with a cuckoo chick that had its gape painted to mimic that of magpie chicks, the parasitic cuckoo received less food than the average magpie chick. 相似文献
2 were sampled in order to verify the impact of these problems on groundwater. All samples were analyzed for major ions, and
about 30 of them for fecal coliforms and heavy metals. Nineteen samples were selected for pesticide analyses. The average
nitrate content was 80 mg/liter, eight times the regional background value. Fecal coliforms were detected in 60% of the analyzed
samples. Zinc content and a high Cl−/HCO3− ratio were observed in the surroundings of the solid waste disposal area. Moreover, lindane and heptachlor pesticides were
detected in ten samples. 相似文献
A risk assessment of chemical constituents in rivers that receive untreated wastewater should take into account the adverse effects of increased biological oxygen demand (BOD), ammonia and reduced dissolved oxygen (DO). This concept was tested via a field study in the Balatuin River, The Philippines, where the influence of physical and chemical factors, including the consumer product chemical linear alkylbenezene sulfonate (LAS), to aquatic communities (algae, invertebrates, fish) was determined. Periphytic algae were found to be insensitive to high BOD (>10 mg/l) and ammonia (>0.01 mg unionized NH(3)/l), concentrations from organically enriched untreated wastewater discharges. However, taxa richness and abundance of macroinvertebrates were influenced greatly by the discharges. Where BOD and ammonia concentrations were elevated, the dominant taxa were oligochaete worms and chironominds. Fish and crustaceans (freshwater crabs and prawns) were found only in sites with the least BOD concentrations (furthest upstream and downstream). The maximum concentration of LAS (0.122 mg/l) was less than that expected to affect 5% of taxa (0.245 mg/l), whereas exceedences of DO and ammonia criteria were observed in several sites. The lack of recovery observed was attributed to influences of low DO, high ammonia and poor colonization from upstream and downstream reaches due to organically-enriched discharges 相似文献